tomatoes

(I told you I would ~ MikeCo)

During the wee hours of the night, 12 April 2023, the rain began. The forecast called for hard rain, and they were right. I awoke as soon as it started because the sound of the rain on the roof was loud. I listened for a while, checked the clock, which read just after midnight, and waited for the rain to slack off. It didn’t. For six hours the rain came down in a hurry and we got eleven inches.

The next morning, the aftermath of the storm manifested with a giant Live Oak toppling over, and the driveway being underwater. My backyard flooded to a point I had never seen before. It was incredible in the magnitude of the amount of water.

Things didn’t get better over time.

2023 saw a couple of hurricanes come in close and add more water to the problem, and my garden drowned. 2024 saw even more hurricanes and even more water, and my garden drowned again.

2025 began wet, and a series of weekly rains kept the water level way too high.

March saw the water level down a bit. April has been a dry month, so far, and little by little, the water is receding. A few more feet and I’ll be able to burn what is left ofthe Live Oak that fell back in 2023.

Believe it or not, I had to don some wading boots to look for the water hose in what was once dry land but is now a small lake. I found the hose, fished it out, and watered my garden, which is in pretty much the highest ground on the property. There is just so much rain tomatoes and squash can handle before they die, however.

Over two years’ worth of flooding has brought in different species of both animals and plants. Frogs, of course, moved in from the pond that overflowed into the yard, and with the frogs came those things that feed on frogs. Water snakes, cottonmouths, wood storks, a great blue heron, a green heron, all followed the frogs. Ducks of all sorts, an egret or three, and assorted wading birds all came to visit.

A couple of alligators, small ones, have swam around in what once was where I mowed the back yard.

My compost pile, that turned out enough compost for me to fully stock the garden, is still under a foot of water. My fire pit is under at least four feet of water. And all of this is after the water started going down.

I mowed today, moving into the swamp grass and reeds, creating space to see what’s there and what’s still mud, and opening up the yard a little more for the dogs. I cut two meters wide into the very back, a meter and a half wide near the shed, and about a meter and a half path to the woods for the dogs to run freer. All the assorted grasses were half a meter tall, at least.

Now, with the swamp grass cut back, and not all the way, I can see that if the water recedes a few more feet, the ditch in the back of the yard will still be full, but within its banks. The compost pile will begin to emerge butbe useless for a while. The pond will begin the process of returning to where it has been for the last twenty-five years.

We’ll know this hurricane season is the new normal or if the old one holds sway.

I’d like to have some tomatoes to talk about this year, but I also love to see storks and herons. I love the sound of frogs. Love what you have, says I. The garden or the swamp, each has a draw that is undeniable.

Take Care,

Mike

In all the photos that you see this week, all the area that can be seen was once lawn, or at least mowable. The old shed you see has never been flooded like this before. Oh, and the hose? Got it out without a Kraken attacking me.